If Wishes Were Horses: Tips, Tricks, and Traps To Successful Goal Planning
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” is a proverb and nursery rhyme, first recorded about 1628 in a collection of Scottish proverbs, which suggests if wishing could make things happen, then even the most destitute people would have everything they wanted.
We all know that setting goals – knowing where you want to be and what you want to achieve – is critical to personal success and fulfillment.
But all that goal setting won’t amount to much if you don’t have a plan for actually doing something about it! A goal without a plan is just a wish. It’s only a “wouldn’t it be nice to” be, do, or have this “something” in our lives.
Once you decide to do something, do you set off with purpose, moving ever forward, keeping up your momentum, and sticking resolutely to your goal? Or, are you easily distracted, wandering here and there, not paying much attention to where you are and how you got there? Do you focus on the reasons why you shouldn’t start or can’t keep going?
Well, take heart – there’s a fix for that!
In this webinar, we’ll look at the four fundamental elements of goal planning that will enable us to achieve the goal: the what, why, how, and when. We’ll also dive into some of the common tips, tricks, and traps to successful goal planning.
Will Work to Feed Dogs: Finding Meaning in the Meaningless
Popular belief would have us believe that we are failures if we are not living the life of our dreams, not working in jobs that we are completely and absolutely passionate about, that meet all of our heart’s desires, and are entirely in our best and highest interest. Certainly, this is nice work if you can get it, you know what it is, and you are in a position to go after it.
However, I assure you that, contrary to popular belief, you are not a failure if you don’t love what you’re doing for a living. Your “life-work” can still be meaningful if it allows you to meet your needs, your wants, and what is most important to you right now. You simply need to redefine what “meaningful” means.
Regardless of what kind of job you are doing now or what you may do in the future, regardless of whether you’ve found your purpose in life, you’re still looking for it, or you just want to “work to feed dogs,” this webinar will show you how easy it is to find meaningful or fulfilling life-work that is in your best and highest interest right now.
Stop, Look, Listen: Signs and Signposts in Nature
Each of us interacts with and reacts to the world from our own unique perspective. This interaction is built up of all our past, present, and even potential future experiences and dictates how we navigate our daily lives.
At times throughout your life, you might look around and realize that where you are is not where you want to be. But now what?
In order to see ourselves and our place in the world with new eyes, we need to have some understanding of how we perceive our world and our place in that world right now. And there’s no better place to discover this than in Nature! Because Nature is constantly showing us all the signs and signposts we need in order to open ourselves to new possibilities.
By the end of this webinar, you will:
- Be a little more aware of what captures your attention – and why.
- Be able to recognize that there is a connection between what you focus your attention on and how you navigate your daily life.
- Experience for yourself how to use “drive-by intuition” to see the signs and signposts in Nature that are important, meaningful – and intended just for you!
Fix It or Forget It: Tips, Tricks, and Traps to Knowing When to Fish or Cut Bait!
Make no mistake – we live in a “Just Do It” culture. Since Nike first rolled out the slogan in 1988, it’s amazing to see how these three words have inspired people, not just to better themselves in sports, but to better all aspects of their lives. From starting over to moving on, from fixing a broken window to fixing a broken relationship, “Just Do It” is, first and foremost, a call to action.
But how do we reconcile our lack of motivation, our inability to get started or keep going with the pressure we put on ourselves and others to Just Do It?
The simple fact is – we don’t. Because not everything needs to be fixed!
In this webinar, we’ll look at the most common reasons why we don’t start, can’t keep going, or finally finish. We’ll also look at how to identify the things that need fixing – and how to happily leave the rest!
Harnessing the Power of Possibilities
Have you ever asked yourself, “If I didn’t have to worry about the outcome, what options would I have? What choices would I make?”
Giving yourself permission to consider all of your options is the key to getting from where you are to where you want to be. Ideas that might not have occurred to you in a million years now might reveal themselves.
Challenging the “not in a million years” approach to living our lives is the key to personal transformation. It is a golden opportunity to make some fundamental changes in our lives. It can mark a turning point in how we live our lives.
In this webinar, you’ll discover the three most important keys to harnessing the power of possibilities: giving yourself permission to look at alternatives; identifying what you want, why you want it, and what you’re willing and not willing to do; and releasing any limiting thoughts and beliefs that are holding you back from being reborn with the knowledge of alternatives!
Overcoming Passenger Mode: How to Stop Going Along for the Ride and Get Back in the Driver’s Seat
Each of us, at one time or another, has been in what I call “passenger mode.” Passenger mode occurs whenever we allow someone else to do something for us that we pay silent witness to. This means we are aware of something that someone else is doing, but that’s about all. We haven’t given it much thought. It can be anything, from unclogging a toilet, changing a tire, doing minor repairs around the house, to driving the kids to school or the dogs to doggy daycare.
There’s nothing inherently good or bad about being in passenger mode. We don’t need to know how to do everything that comprises our daily lives.
But then, one day, out of the blue and usually without warning, that one thing that we haven’t had to do, and never thought we’d ever need to know how to do, suddenly appears, and now we find ourselves having to do it, or we need to find someone who can do it for us. And for most of us, we don’t discover this until something happens in our lives that forces us to think about it very quickly.
The key to getting back in the driver’s seat is to identify what you do know and what you don’t know before you have to know it! And you can’t know what those things are until you take inventory of everything in your life that someone else does for you, but that someday you might need or want to know how to do yourself.
In this webinar, you’ll learn how to identify everything that someone else does for you; decide which of those things you need to learn, want to learn, or never need or want to learn; and develop an action plan for everything on your list.
Overcoming the Ready-Aim-Aim-Aim Syndrome: How to Turn Good Intentions into Positive Action!
We all know that setting goals – knowing where you want to be and what you want to achieve – is key to success, whether your goal is finding financial prosperity, maintaining a healthier lifestyle, or getting a new job. And, we know that it’s equally important to have a plan and establish benchmarks along the way so that we can measure progress and stay motivated.
However, all that goal setting and planning and progress measuring won’t amount to much if you can’t–or won’t–take the first step, find the motivation to take the next step, and then develop momentum to keep taking all the next steps after that.
The unfortunate truth is that most people aren’t taking consistent action towards their goals. At some point, their resolve breaks down, and their good intentions go by the wayside. They run into an unexpected challenge or self-sabotaging behavior. In the end, they’re stuck in what T. Boone Pickens called the “Ready Aim Aim Aim Syndrome,” struggling to start and then stick to anything longer than a few days, weeks, or months.
Well, take heart – there’s a fix for that!
During this webinar, we’ll discuss how to get clear on the goals you want to achieve; break down those goals into manageable, actionable steps; identify skills, practices, and sustainable daily actions for achieving your goals; and uncover the obstacles keeping you from making progress and moving you closer to your goal.
Here We Go Again: Examining Your Change Readiness
If you’ve ever tried making changes, whether big or small, you may have noticed that some go well and others are more challenging. In some cases they may end up being nothing more than a good intention that never happened.
Most people don’t like change. For many of us, change can be difficult or uncomfortable. This is true regardless of whether the change is forced upon us, planned, unexpected, or self-created. Why? Because we are giving up familiarity in exchange for the unfamiliar and unknown.
Some people certainly seem to handle change better than others. Most of us know at least one person who has successfully made a major change in their lives such as quitting smoking, losing weight, or walking away from their “Sure Thing” job. Then there are the others—and maybe you count yourself among these people —who give up the minute it gets tough.
The secret to success lies in taking an honest look at how ready we really are to make those changes. The purpose of this webinar is to help you evaluate your “change readiness.” Here are a few of the questions we’ll be exploring:
- How does the thought of change make me feel?
- How do I feel, act, or respond when something changes in my life?
- How would my friends and family describe my ability to handle change?
- How do I feel, act, or respond when faced with the possibility of change or even thinking about initiating a change?
Finding and Unleashing Your Inner Tigger: Because If You’re Gonna Pounce, You’ve Gotta Have Some Bounce!
Tigger™: Noun (plural Tiggers). A one-of-a-kind, overly enthusiastic or energetic person, often characterized by bouncing.
Fun-loving and bouncy, Tigger is the boisterous member of the Hundred Acre Wood community. He proudly announces to everyone that, “It’s a dangerous path I bounce. But I bounce it alone. Because the Hundred Acre Wood needs a hero, Pooh Bear! And I’m the only one.”
Just like Tigger, you too are one of a kind, with a special blend of talents and qualities that no one else has. And you have a purpose each day, just like Tigger, that only you can do.
Having a purpose in life doesn’t have to be “lofty” to be valuable and worth doing. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best when he said, “The purpose of life is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
During this entirely fun and exuberant webinar, you discover how, like Tigger, you too can live a heroic life by learning to sense the uniqueness and one-of-a-kind-ness that you possess; enthusiastically embrace that uniqueness; and put a little bounce in your pounce!
Feeling the Fear and Doing It Anyway
“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power. You are free.” Jim Morrison
This webinar is based on my book, “Doing the Thing You Think You Cannot Do.” This book is about coping with life events before the event occurs, and we are unable to cope at all. It’s a book of answers to the gut-wrenching question, “What the hell am I going to do now?”
The tricky part to life events is that the event often requires us to make informed decisions at a time when we are emotionally incapable of doing so. We’re consumed by fear, panic, or despair. Yet make decisions we must, and without some kind of planning, we often make them with disastrous results.
The thing about fear is that it often leaves us feeling emotionally paralyzed. We are unable to act quickly or decisively or, in some cases, even think clearly. For most of us, the fundamental cause of fear is the belief that we can’t handle the event. Yet, action and clear-headedness are essential to handling our fear successfully.
During this webinar, you will learn to see any life event differently so you can fearlessly address it now while you are in a place of peace and power.
Curing the No Way Out Syndrome
This webinar is based on two of the exercises in my book, “I’ve Been Down Here Before But This Time I Know the Way Out”: Acknowledging A-Ha Moments And Wake-Up Calls, and Recognizing Your Crossroads
An A-ha moment is an epiphany, which translates as “striking appearance.” In that moment, a previously unsolvable problem becomes suddenly clear and obvious; the person experiencing the A-ha moment is convinced that a solution, a concept, or a new thought or belief is true. For most of us, our lives are filled with A-ha moments. But those moments too often are ignored.
And where do these A-ha moments often occur? When we reach a crossroads in our life, and we must take action: turn left instead of right; take the shady path rather than the sunny one; attempt the uphill climb rather than the downhill stroll. Otherwise, we come to a standstill.
So, how do you take the first step?
During this webinar, you will learn how to:
- Identify any A-ha moments or wake-up calls that you are experiencing – or possibly ignoring.
- Recognize when you’re at a crossroads – or acknowledge that, perhaps, that’s where you are right now.
- Heed that call to action – and determine whether you’d better do something about it.
The Quality of Our Looking: On Coming to Believe
We push a button, and the TV comes on. We trust it will come on. We might not understand the science of airwaves and sound, but we believe in the magic of television. Nor do we wonder whether the sun will rise. We just assume with confidence and without question that it will.
Then why don’t we believe in our own magic, our own sure knowing? Why do we doubt?
Doubt is a common experience for everyone. We all have moments when we doubt our perceptions, our beliefs, what we see, feel, know. Most of the world lives in a mind existence – I won’t believe it until I see it! – so believing and trusting in something that isn’t tangible is hard for many of us to do.
Then there are those people who are believers by nature. For them, beliefs are the guiding principles that provide direction and meaning in life.
And yet the reasons we believe in any one thing are essentially the same reasons why we doubt. Both doubt and belief are in fact self-created filters; both originate from what we hear and keep on hearing from others. In addition, culture, habit, upbringing, religious or superstitious practices, history, and accustomed pessimism are all powerful factors that underlie and inform why we doubt or why we believe.
During this webinar, we’ll look at how both doubt and belief impact our perception of the world around us as well as how we navigate our daily lives as a result of that perception. And we’ll explore how we can consciously feel the doubt and then actively spring into action to expand and grow in ways that feel appropriate to us instead of letting doubt rule our lives.